Man who paid students to drop out of college to teach at Stanford

By eCampus News staff and wire reports

March 12th, 2012

Peter Thiel, the superstar Silicon Valley investor, has famously dismissed university as a waste of time and money, and even offered students cash to drop out. But his views apparently do not apply to himself-or to Stanford University, Reuters reports. Thiel, 44, will teach at the elite university this spring, sharing pearls of entrepreneurial wisdom in a class called “Computer Science 183: Startup.” The course is already oversubscribed, with Thiel’s return to his alma mater sparking both enthusiasm and skepticism on a campus increasingly obsessed with start-up success.
“It’s puzzling to us what he has to say,” said Nruthya Madappa, a senior in electrical engineering who saw rumors of Thiel’s class explode on her Facebook news feed on a recent evening and rushed to sign up “several minutes” after course enrollment went live…